re: Tried to watch Planet Earth, Frozen Planet II with the kids. Impossible

There is no doubt that man is releasing more CO2 into the atmosphere. The deal is this additional CO2 DOES NOT correlate with warmer global temperatures. In fact the temperature data is illustrative of more temperate climate. That is lower highs and higher lows.

This makes sense from the greening effect that CO2 has on a global scale. Even NASA agrees with the current global effect that CO2 currently has on the planet. With more greening you have more plant photosynthesis which leads to more atmospheric water vapor.

To use a mechanical analogy water is the great atmospheric mass-damper system. It's the only atmospheric constituent that goes through all three common phases changes thus utilizing the sun's energy preventing temperature extremes on earth. The more water in the atmosphere the more temperate the climate. A perfect example of this behavior is Phoenix, AZ and Huntsville, AL. Both cities on the same latitude, receive the exact same amount of solar radiation, and both at similar elevations. The only difference between the two cities is water vapor concentrations at their respective locations. Phoenix with low water vapor concentrations has extreme temperature variations. Huntsville, not so much.

Furthermore the period of time during earth's geologic history with the biggest expansion of life came when CO2 concentrations were more than 10 time current levels. I have seen medical studies that indicate that increasing CO2 concentrations sets up higher CO2-O2 cell wall gradient and animals that live via O2 respiration obtain better O2 absorption when CO2 concentrations are more elevated than the current 400 ppm. This may be the reason for the massive expansion of life on earth during the Precambrian period. Of course there is a point of diminishing returns when CO2 levels are too high and become dangerous to life (but that can be said of any atmospheric constituent).